American and United Airlines are increasing daily flights from State College Regional Airport to Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, DC this fall.
Airport officials, meanwhile, are confident that additional services are on the horizon, including flights to and from Charlotte, North Carolina, and the expected return of Delta Airlines, Centre County Airport Authority Director Jim Meyer told the Centre County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.
“What we can count on is change, and we hope that it will be for the better,” said Meyer.
Beginning August 6, American will offer a fourth daily flight between State College and Philadelphia International. In October, there will be five.
United Airlines added a third daily flight to Washington Dulles International Airport on Monday and will add a fourth flight to and from Chicago O’Hare on September 1.
On or about September 21, United will also increase the size of the aircraft used for flights between State College and Chicago from a 50-seater to a 76-seater aircraft, providing first-class service.
Overall, the airport will have 10 to 11 flights a day in September and 11 to 12 flights a day in October, Meyer said. In November, when demand subsides, that will likely drop to eight to nine flights a day.
“Airlines look for high load factors and peaks and valleys all year long,” said Jason McMurtrie, the airport’s terminal manager. “Obviously, they always see football season as a very high-yield, high load factor season, so they always try to offer extra flights at that time. The same goes for holidays. They try to offer flights to get people there and back for Thanksgiving.”
While the number of daily flights is expected to decrease during the quieter winter months, changes could still occur, Meyer said, as airlines currently operate on a three-month schedule.
Connections to other destinations may also be offered.
The airport authority continues to have discussions with American about long-awaited service between State College and Charlotte. The authority began talks with the airline in 2021a about establishing regular flights to and from Charlotte Douglas International, and local and regional officials put together a $300,000 incentive package, mostly from American Rescue Plan Act funds, to help with upfront costs.
In 2023 informed the authority It said it was “unable to commit to the planned offer of two flights a day, six days a week”, but that talks would continue.
“We’ve been working with American for some time to get our flight to Charlotte,” Meyer said. “We’re still working on it.”
The return of Delta Airlines, which previously operated twice-daily flights from State College to New York LaGuardia and before that to Detroit, seems to be a safer option. State College was one of several regional airports where Delta has stopped the service in 2023 due to staff shortages.
“They’re coming back, we just don’t know exactly when,” Meyer said. “We hope they’ll return to the airport in 2025. They told us when they left that they were coming back.”
This post-COVID-19 staffing shortage resulted in reduced flight capacity at the airport as airlines shifted their staff from regional flights to major hubs. Before COVID, State College Regional had about 240,000 seats available annually and 193,000 of those were filled, McMurtrie said. This year, capacity is about 165,000, of which 135,000 are filled.
Once the staffing situation stabilizes, McMurtrie said, “everything will come back to us and we will have more capacity.”
Still, the days of major airlines flying into lower-yield markets are “kind of over,” McMurtrie said, so State College Regional Airport is using data and relationship building to promote additional services to airlines.
“You work with hundreds of airports, and everyone wants service somewhere, bigger planes,” he said. “If you build a good relationship with them and use good data that shows them they’re going to increase the capacity of the airport for certain events and get a return on that, they’re willing to listen to you. But once you screw up, it’s hard to fix it.”
He added that airlines are looking for flights that will command a higher price and that “unfortunately, prices are where they are now and are not going to go down. Airlines want to make money with the resources they have.”
However, the authority is discussing ways the airport can reduce costs for airlines for the benefit of passengers.
“This would give the airlines some leeway to lower ticket prices somewhat and give us better chances of additional and new flights,” said Meyer.
